Moon-Lover

The Moon is like a ping-pong ball;I lean against the orchard wall,And see it soar into the void,A silky sphere of celluloid.

The fairy fire enkindled it,Like gossamer by taper lit,Until it glows above the treesAs mellow as a Cheddar cheese.

And up and up I watch it passInto appalling loneliness;Like realms of ice without a stain,A corpse Moon come to life again.

Ruthless it drowns a sturdy starThat seeks its regal way to bar;Seeming with conscious power to grow,And sweeter, purer, gladder glow.

Dreaming serenely up the skyUntil exultantly on high,It shimmers with superb delight,The silver navel of the night.

II

I have a compact to communeA monthly midnight with the Moon;Into its face I stare and stare,And find sweet understanding there.

As quiet as a toad I sitAnd tell my tale of days to it;The tessellated yarn I've spunIn thirty spells of star and sun.

And the Moon listens pensively,As placid as a lamb to me;Until I think there's just us twoIn silver world of mist and dew.In all of spangled space, but ITo share noon-struck in the sky;Of billion beings I aloneTo praise the Moon as still as stone.

And seal a bond between us two,Closer than mortal ever knew;For as mute masses I intoneThe Moon is mine and mine alone.

III

To know the Moon as few men may,One must be just a little fey;And for our friendship's sake I'm gladThat I am just a trifle mad.

And one with all the wild, wise things,The furtive folk of fur and wings,That hold the Moon within their eyes,And make it nightly sacrifice.

O I will watch the maiden MoonDance on the sea with silver shoon;But with the Queen Moon I will keepMy tryst when all the world's asleep.

As I have kept by land and seaThat tryst for half a century;Entranced in sibylline suspenseBeyond a world of common-sense.

Until one night the Moon aloneWill look upon a graven stone. . . .I wonder will it miss me then,Its lover more than other men?

Or will my wistful ghost be there,Down ages dim to stare and stare,On silver nights without a stir -The Moon's Eternal Worshipper?